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Caprese Tarts

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on September 15, 2009| Leave a Comment »

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As anyone who knows me will tell you, I have an addiction problem.  Tomatoes, especially heirloom tomatoes.  Totally addicted to them.  This time of year is a particularly heady time for me, the tomatoes are rolling in from the fields, everyone’s backyard, rooftop, and balcony plants are dripping tomatoes.  The choices are almost overwhelming, what to do, what to make, which to eat?  I personally am a purist. Sliced and salted is my method of choice.  But, I’m also totally in love with heirlooms and burrata cheese, as you’ve seen before.  As I stood before the counter with these beauties in front of me, leaning yet again towards the simplest preparations, this time a caprese salad, I remembered the box of puff pastry languishing in the freezer. Hmmmmm….caprese tart.  That could work.  That totally could work.  So here it is, something different to do with those tomatoes you’ve got sitting on your counter. Different, but familiar.  You’ll know this one as soon as you start!

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Beef Fillet Salad with Green Goddess Dressing

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on August 29, 2009| 1 Comment »

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A salad.  Everyone knows how to make a salad, so why do I think you might be interested in this one?  Well, first of all, because it’s good.  Really good. Second, it has Green Goddess dressing on it, which, if you’ve never had it you might want to try.  Third, it’s a riff on contrasts, color, texture, temperature.  If you’re anything like me, you’ve eaten your fair share of salads.  We’re always trying eat healthier, or justify having that chocolate cupcake.  When eating a salad I seem to alternate between “this is so good” and “wait, what did I just eat?”.  I promise that this is one that you’ll remember eating, and will want to eat again.  I’ve had beef filet salads before.  They’ve always had blue cheese in them, the beef was too done for me, and the dressings always seemed either too goopy or too vinegary.  If I do say so myself, this Green Goddess dressing is an inspired choice.  It has enough substance to stick to the ingredients, and enough fluidity to become part of them.  It’s fresh and herby, soft and sharp all at once.  I’m planning on having it again for lunch.  I’m also wondering what else I can use this dressing on. There’s no doubt that I’ll run out of dressing before I run out of choices to put it on.

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Cherry Macaroon Tart

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on August 25, 2009| 3 Comments »

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I’ve gone a little tart crazy this past weekend. It’s late August, the peaches have been rolling in, the plums, there’s figs at the market. So much choice a girl could lose her head just a bit. Somehow, I’m not sure exactly why, but I ended up with a bag of the last of the cherries in my grocery cart. I bought a little tired and worse for the ride cherries from the grocery store. Hmmmm, and huh? Okay then. I thought they should have a wonderful final ride, and I had a party to cook for, so I started looking for a suitable finale for them. There were traditional cherry pie recipes, individual cherry tarts, cherry macaroon bars (maybe)  and cherry macaroon tarts.  They weren’t exactly what I was looking for but they inspired me to try my own version.  More of a traditional macaroon filling, moist and sweet, with whole fresh cherries.  I have a tart dough that I love working with that’s so adaptable, I thought I just might have a hit.  I was right.  I even think that this might be great with frozen bing cherries, that you defrost and then soak with some amaretto for a bit before using.  If you see some of these last cherries anywhere, I’d try this tart.  It would be a fitting last hurrah for them.

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My Mom’s Tomatoes and Onions

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on August 21, 2009| 2 Comments »

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My mother is a Southern woman.  She moved with my Dad to the Northeast, but has always remained a Southern woman.  It has been my experience that people in the South know how to cook.  And eat.  She comes from a long line of good cooks. She grew up with her mother trading recipes with her friends and relatives, always trying to outdo one another.  It occasionally got so competitive that they would leave an ingredient out, or alter the measurements in a small way so that the resulting recipe was never quite as good as the original.  They were women who wore house dresses and aprons, who got dressed up, hats and gloves, matching bags and shoes, to go to town in the afternoon.  Elizabeth, Inez, Snooks, Dorothy and Avanelle, women who took pride in and were known by their sour cream pound cake, fried chicken, or particularly light biscuits.  They cooked with the seasons, from the gardens, according to the weather.  They were locavores before there was term for it.  They passed their expertise to their daughters, who taught their daughters, and so on, and so on, and now I’m telling you about a favorite.   A simple dish, perfect for the hot sultry days of August, when the produce is rolling in from the gardens but it’s just too hot to cook.

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Keeping it cool

Posted in Uncategorized on August 14, 2009| 3 Comments »

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It seems that pickles have come into their own.  Everyone, from chefs at the uber cool new restaurants to the hostess of your next bar-be-que are completely pickle obsessed.  And I’m getting in line with them.  Especially this kind of pickling.  It’s so cool,  you’re just gonna love it!  (Excited jumping up and down) NO COOKING!  I repeat…..No Cooking.  No bringing brine to a boil and coughing from vinegar fumes, no giant pot of water that took forever to boil, no water baths, no burnt fingers, no waiting for the little lids to go pop,  none of that.  These are in the category called quick pickles.  They only keep for tops a month, but seriously, that’s not going to be a problem.  They’re crispy, and crunchy, they taste like pickles, but they taste like the vegetables you used.  Cucumbers, and carrots, asparagus and green beans.  Grapes.  Yeah, grapes. We’ll get to those another time.  But anything you’d like.

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Gozleme (It’s zucchini)

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on August 9, 2009| Leave a Comment »

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Gozleme or Turkish Zucchini Cakes.  At least, according to Bert Greene.  And Bert has never steered me wrong before.  If you’re not familiar with Bert Greene, there’s no better time to get acquainted.  The late Bert Greene was a much admired cookbook author and food columnist.  Each of his books have won an IACP Cookbook Award and are still available, especially my favorite, Greene on Greens.  Covering only vegetables, Greene on Greens always has a surprising or inspiring recipe to get you looking at your veggies in a whole new light.  With Colorado’s produce season in full swing, I think we’ll be visiting Mr. Greene’s book often.  So, back to the gozleme.  These really are almost a fritter, but more dense and not deep fried.  The flavor is subtle, definitely exotic, and might be just thing to get non-zucchini people eating zucchini.

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That song in your head

Posted in Uncategorized on August 6, 2009| Leave a Comment »

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You know when you get a song stuck in your head? And it doesn’t go away? Even when you’re trying to fall asleep or reading or chopping veggies and it’s still running around the back of your mind and you can’t make it stop? Well, ever since I saw this recipe that’s happened to me. “She put the lime in the coconut and drank it all up, she put the lime in the coconut, called her doctor, woke him up, Say doctor, is there nothing I can take, I say doccccctor, to relieve this belly ache, She put the lime in the coconut…” Arrrrrrgggggghhhh. That is not a fun song to be hearing relentlessly at 2 am. Anyhow, I finally got to make this recipe, Coconut and Lime Bars with Hazelnut Shortbread. Those are key limes up there, so tiny and cute. That’s a small to medium size lemon, just for scale. Yes, I know, no coconut. You use the pre-shredded kind. And no, I had no intention of whacking a coconut open if I could even find one.
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Just a little longer….

Posted in Uncategorized on August 4, 2009| 1 Comment »

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There are what I call “Refrigerator Cherries”.  What happens is this, every year when the cherries show up at the farmer’s markets and grocery stores, I start buying them.  Pounds at a time.  ‘Cause I know they aren’t going to be around very long so I need to have as many as I can.  I’m sure that I’ll want another bag full and they’ll be gone.  Until NEXT YEAR……..uggggh.   So when I saw this method of extending their sweet little lives a bit longer, I knew I had to try it.

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Just Eat Them

Posted in Uncategorized on July 31, 2009| Leave a Comment »

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These little babies are Pluot plums.  Beautiful mottled skin, light green, amber, and well, plum.  Their flesh is this intense pink/red, full of juice, tart, sweet, so good to eat.  They’ve never made it in my kitchen long enough to cook with.  And that’s okay.  I think that should be the policy from now on.  Just eat them.  ‘Cause you see those little innocent looking things?  Those plums are a nasty piece of work!  Here’s the deal…

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Heirloom Tomatoes & Watermelon Radishes

Posted in Uncategorized on July 30, 2009| Leave a Comment »

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That’s what I purchased at the farmer’s market this week.  Oh, and Pluot plums, but more on them in another post.  It’s summer.  It’s time for lighter food, and easy preparation.  It’s time for the freshest, most available, and abundant fruit and vegetables we can find.  They don’t need a long and involved cooking process and in some cases, like this, they don’t need cooking at all.  This is tomatoes with Italian burrata cheese.  Drizzled with your best olive oil, and sprinkled with coarse salt.  Amazing. The burrata cheese comes from The Truffle on 6th Ave. here in Denver.  I’ve been buying heirloom tomatoes for a couple of reasons, the local tomatoes haven’t really come into their own just quite yet and these taste more like summer tomatoes right now, and  second, they’re pretty!  They’re deep, deep purpley red, and striped green, bright yellow with red centers, orange……so great looking on your plate.  The cheese is the basically mozzarella  with a ricotta center.  It’s so soft and luscious.  It fills your mouth with a clean fresh cream taste, the perfect foil for tomatoes (and very nice on slathered on grilled bread).  No cooking involved, slice, plate, drizzle, sprinkle.  You, your guests, and your mouth will be so very happy.  And you’ll have time to put your feet up, drink another glass of wine, and watch the sun go down.  I’m so happy summer is here.
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